things we love, birthdays, and grins (and lots of pictures!)

truth be told, i should be in bed sleeping since it is the middle of the night and Caedmon has been fast asleep in her crib for several hours, but here I am instead on the computer, cause i can't fall asleep. it is crazy how everyone tells you to sleep when they are sleeping, yet it is so hard to do that sometimes... oh well. let's blog.

Here we are again, pretty late with my "things i love" post for week 6, and it is almost time to post week 7... but that's okay because this isn't like a homework assignment where my teacher would give me an 'F' for turning it in late. good thing, or i would get a lot of 'F's (well i actually did get one of those one time in college... but that is another story, for another day... or never...)

so here it is: thing i love: week six

#1
giving you kisses on your bare skin. it could be on your toes,
your cheek, your belly, your back, your lips, your forehead, or anywhere.
(but only me and daddy can do that... so don't be getting any ideas...)

#2
holding other peoples children and knowing that no matter
how great they are they will never be as great as you!

#3
walking around stores with you in the shopping cart.
for some reason I just love that so much,
like it just makes something so regular & mundane
like grocery shopping or a quick trip to walmart, so great and fun.
cause I can just look at you the whole time!

#4
that I sweat profusely when you really really cry.
this is also something I hate,
but I love it for the fact that it means my body
was made to be your mom, and it does things
beyond my control only because of you.

#5
that one of your regular faces is you
with your lips pursed in a tight "o" shape.
it is absolutely adorable.

#6
taking lots and lots of pictures of you!

#7
knowing that you look just like your dad.
y'all are the people I love the most on this earth
and I love that y'all have so many similar features.


Some other news, we FINALLY got our birth announcements delivered to us, and almost mailed! I only mailed the first half cause i didn't have enough stamps... but the rest will be going out by the end of this week!
I say that we FINALLY got them, because I ordered them on Sept 9th, and then there was a routing problem by UPS, then when they finally delivered it late, there was an EMPTY box on my doorstep, i kid you not. Then i had to make three different phone calls to the printer, and they FINALLY had them reprinted and they upgraded my shipping to Next Day Air and I received them on Oct 1st! That is a ridiculously long time to wait for an order. It wasn't the printers fault, but they tried to reconcile things with the upgraded shipping and I only ordered 100 announcements, but I am pretty sure they mailed me about 250 of them... not sure what I will do with THAT many birth announcements, but i definitely won't be mailing all of those out, cause I can't afford the postage!

And just keep on reading for lots of our latest updates (with lots of pictures):

Caedmon had another doctor's appointment on Sept. 28th with Dr. Donner, her heart doctor, and she had to have another echocardiogram, but this time I got to be in there with her and see what exactly they do. It is basically just like a pregnancy ultrasound with the handheld thing and the goo. Except they put it on her chest, and it takes a long time because it is hard for them to see what they want to see with a 6 week old squirming around... but she did really good considering it took forever, but i got to lay on the bed with her, and talk to her and sing to her, so she would be relatively still. Anyways, after that, she had another EKG where they stick a million things on her chest and hook wires up to them, and she did really good laying still for that. We finally saw Dr. Donner after all her tests and he said that everything looks the same, she still has the hole in her heart (VSD) but since she still has no symptoms (difficulty eating or breathing), he doesn't want to see her again until she is one, unless she has any unforeseen problems, which we are hoping won't happen. They measured and weighed her while we were there and she now weighs a whopping 10 lbs 14 oz, and she is 21 1/4 inches long! Man, i knew my arms have been pretty sore lately with toting her around everywhere! She's so BIG!


And our latest (Caedmon's first!) family holiday was Russ turning 26 on Sept. 30th! Unfortunately he had to work all day teaching and then work at Chick-Fil-A that night, but Caedmon and I had a couple of surprises for him before he left for work and when he got home at the end of the day.

When he woke up he found this "pile" of stuff set up in the kitchen:


Underneath this little pile is a framed picture of her being held in his hand.
(he had asked me for a big framed picture of her for his classroom,
but he decided we should hang it up here at the house cause he liked it so much.)


and the point of the "pile" was a big creative explanation for the rest of his birthday present that will be coming in the mail soon.
(you'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read the little teeny tiny lines in between...)


These are her footprints that i stamped on a piece of cardstock.


Then i scanned them on the computer and designed this t-shirt with her two footprints, minus the toes :) forming a heart, and put them on a t-shirt!


We can't wait to see it in real life!

Then when Russ got home late that evening, we had these birthday cake/cookies waiting for him! (I made the frosting from scratch! gosh, that makes me feel so motherly & domestic!)



It was hopefully going to inspire the Braves to get their act together and try to make it to the playoffs... but it didn't really help after all... at least they were fun to play with :)


We even let Caedmon eat one. Okay, maybe not, but it wasn't fair for us to eat them without her, so we pretended...


Happy 26h birthday to our husband/daddy!



And here are a few exciting moments about how she is growing and changing every single day!

#1 EYELASHES! They are growing much longer and thicker, and i am still holding out that she will develop long luxurious lashes like her daddy... and her eyes are definitely very very blue!


#2 COOS & GURGLES! She is definitely more vocal now, it is mostly when she is just waking up from a nap, or after she is finished eating, they are like her own little sounds of contentment! It is so cute! Russ's grandmother, Mer, bought her a little "Sleep Sheep" that is this little stuffed sheep with a sound machine inside it, and there are four settings, heart, rain, ocean, and whale. Well we listen to the whale setting a lot while Caedmon is awake and it sounds like ocean water in the background but with a whale sound every few seconds. Anyways Caedmon loves to watch this sheep and listens to the whales, and then "talks" back to them with her own little cooing sounds! One day when she is doing it more than once or twice every five minutes or so I will take a video and write a post on how our daughter can speak "whale." :)


#3 BIG GIRL BATHS! Since I told you her umbilical cord came off last friday we have been bathing her in the tub, and some days she loves it and some days she hates it!
Clearly she hated it this day...


#4 LONGER/THICKER/CURLIER HAIR! I really have no idea how much it has actually changed, but it definitely looks like more to me! This is what her hair looks like after we take her hooded towel off after her bath!


And for the grand finale, I mentioned in my last post that Caedmon has been
SMILING!
Every single day she smiles more and better!
And here is my sweet little girl cheesin' it up for the camera.
I really think seeing her smile is almost as good as seeing her for the very first time,
it completely melts my heart. Enjoy these absolutely incredible little grins.




OH MY GOSH, don't you just love them? They make me smile so much!

Be sure to stay tuned for week seven of the things i love (but don't be surprised if it is closer to week eight before i post them! haha)

And can i just say in conclusion that I am so glad it is fall. summer was great, but i missed most of it cause i was too pregnant and it was too hot... but now I just can't wait to be outside and let Caedmon experience my favorite season of the year!